Miraculous Tales Of Ladybug And Cat Noir- Season 4, Ep. 18.7 Mister Noir

Both: part 9

Mister Noir and Ladybug had decided it was time to get back to the Concorde where the battle with Timeless had started. It was getting late now, and only a few stragglers were left, gawking at the nothing much left to be fixed. The reporters were mercifully nowhere to be seen.

Well, the average reporters anyway.

"Is that Alya? What's she doing out here so late?"

Noir looked, and grinned. "And that's Nino with her. This will be fun." And without a thought, Noir hopped over to the young couple on the street.

"Noir! Ugh, what about all that keeping a low profile stuff you were telling my pa--the, Dupain-Cheng's?" She muttered, more to herself than anyone, seeing as Noir wasn't listening. Interesting how his cat ears failed him so specifically.

"Wow, Mister Noir! I didn't think we were going to get to meet you personally!" Alya fangirled as Ladybug joined them. "I thought for sure Bunnyx would have found you and swapped you back in time by now. Surely time travel powers mean you're always on time?"

Noir grinned, "You'd be surprised what counts as 'on time' for time travellers."

🐈‍⬛🐞

Daxten found his biggest prize ever. He'd seen the grown ups passing around a big roll of crinkly crackly paper. He had his eyes on it all evening.

Finally it was unguarded.

🐞🐈‍⬛

"I've got to get a photo for the Ladyblog, you and Ladybug together, maybe?"

"How's this?" And Mister Noir struck a heroic pose with both the yoyo and staff at the ready.

Ladybug stood beside him with a disapproving grimace.

"Perfect, Mister Noir. Uh Ladybug, could you give us a smile?"

Ladybug frowned ferociously at Alya.

Alya laughed nervously and surreptitiously took a photo anyway.

"So, what are you kids doing out here so late anyway?" Mister Noir said, trying to adopt his best teacherish tone.

It had the right effect, thankfully, making him sound just like he was trying too hard to play at being grown up. They all laughed.

"Well, Gabriel Agreste is actually coming out for a last minute press conference about the mess of the photoshoot. It normally would just have carried on or rescheduled, but because there's still some damage to the site, and Adrien hasn't checked back in, they couldn't."

"What?! What's happened to Adrien?!" Ladybug squeaked.

"He's fine," Mister Noir shrugged. "He was caught in one of Timeless' stray blasts. If I remember, he was in the news the next day saying he'd had to have tea with the Corsican and was nearly put in prison for being suspicious."

"So, not much different than how he'd normally have to spend his day," Nino scoffed bitterly.

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Daxten wibbled this way. He wobbled that way. He fell bottom first a few times. But he never let go of his treasure.

Finally, he reached Adrien, whose young face and sparkling green eyes enthralled little Daxten. He liked seeing those eyes see him.

"Bvooah!" Daxten declared triumphantly.

"Thank you!" Adrien responded happily. He was loving how easy it was to make this little one happy.

Adrien held up the newspaper, and waved as Daxten meandered away haphazardly.

Nino had Remi now, and was trying to rebutton her little onesie after a change.

Adrien looked at the paper he'd been given. He'd seen it making the rounds that night, and was glad to see what was so interesting.

It was an article from tomorrow's newspaper again. This time it was about his father.

🐞🐈‍⬛

Ladybug and Alya gave Nino a worried look. Mister Noir smirked.

"Well, Gabriel Agreste doesn't know this, he's probably worried sick!" Ladybug fumed and went off to find Mr Agreste.

"Ha, the old ogre would have to care first."

"Nino!" Alya looked worriedly over at Mister Noir. "Adrien's his best friend. He feels a little frustrated for Adien because--"

"Because old man Agreste is the Nightmare of Agreste Mansion, yes, I gather."

Nino looked at Mister Noir and laughed. "Do you know Adrien at all?"

"We're acquainted, yes."

"If you knew him half as well as I do, you'd use your superpowers to walk up to his dad and punch him in the face for how he treats Adrien."

Noir grinned. "You're really feeling this tonight?"

"I have been worried all day for Adrien. He's not answered his cell phone, he's working all these long hours, he's not happy. And that horrible old man of his holds a press conference before even trying to find out what happened to his son. You want to bet he hasn't even noticed Adrien went missing yet?"

Noir's face softened. "I'm sorry, Nino. I long forgot you had been so worried or I'd have said something earlier."

Nino paused and looked more carefully at Mister Noir.

An idea seemed to seep into Noir's mind here, an idea that spread a wicked, Grinch-like smile on his face. "If you had my powers right now, Nino Lahiffe, would you punch Gabriel Agreste in the face? In front of all these people? Because of your friend Adrien's misery?"

Alya got very worried now. "W-ait a minute, Mister Noir. Are you --"

"Yes!" Nino stared, unblinking into Mister Noir's eyes.

"What?! Are you crazy? You can't--"

But they weren't listening to Alya at all. A look passed between Nino and Noir, and Nino felt as though sometime in the future, he was friends with this Cat Noir. Real friends.

"Plagg, Tikki divide!" And the red parts of Mister Noir's costume flickered away, revealing Tikki to the night.

"You're not serious!" Alya hissed as Cat Noir removed the earrings and put them in Nino's hand.

"I'm very serious," Cat laughed, while Nino fit the little studs in his ears.

"What will people think if superheroes just start punching obnoxious people randomly in the street?" Alya opposed. "Tikki, you're perfectly sensible, tell these guys what a terrible idea this is!"

Future Tikki looked at Alya, at Nino, and finally at Cat Noir. She took a moment before saying, "I think, in a weird way, this is more sensible than it sounds, Alya."

And so Alya had no say when Cat Noir took Nino Lahiffe off to transform.